Baseball’s automated referee system is a hit across the Atlantic – but Premier League fans would rather live with bad decisions than kill the game they love

When Liverpool forward Luis Díaz slipped between two Tottenham Hotspur defenders and fired his shot into the bottom corner of the goal in the autumn of 2023, none of the 62,000 fans in attendance could have imagined the gravity of the error that the video assistant referee (VAR) was about to commit.

The on-field linesman raised his flag to disallow the goal, believing Díaz had strayed into an offside position. VAR official Darren England and his assistant watched a reply and agreed. “Check complete,” England said. The game restarted. Seconds later, a VAR replay operator alerted England to an issue. He had made a grave error. Díaz was onside and a goal should have been awarded.

The audio transcript of what took place that day reads less like a decision-making process between two elite officials in football’s most prestigious league and more like a comedy sketch. The farcical error may have happened nearly three years ago, yet it continues to serve as the hallmark example of why so many Premier League fans are fed up with VAR.

Compare this to baseball’s automatic ball-strike system (ABS). Just seconds after a pitch is challenged, the correct decision is reached. The main difference? Unlike VAR, which leaves the final call to the referee, ABS removes the element of human judgement entirely.

ABS uses a network of cameras and sensors to track the location of a pitch in relation to the strike zone (the target area a pitch must pass through) to an accuracy of 2.5mm. The result of a pitch can either be a strike, where the ball passes through the strike zone, or a ball, when it does not. This result can be challenged via an official ABS challenge by the pitcher, catcher or batter.

The use of ABS in any capacity was greeted by a 70 per cent approval rate from fans during the technology’s testing phase, alongside a 61 per cent approval rate from players. This is in stark contrast to VAR in the Premier League, which is supported by a meagre 10 per cent of all supporters, according to YouGov’s latest survey.

Given its success across the pond, full automation of refereeing in the Premier League seems a no-brainer, right? Well, it is not that simple.

Premier League football fans have a complicated relationship with the officiating of the game, as Dan Silver, a board member of the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust, explains. “I think [VAR] is a very frustrating aspect of modern football,” Silver says. “You have all these rules that are open to interpretation, therefore you’re not going to get consistency […] Different referees interpret it in different ways, and you’re not going to get the same decision every week.”

It is this inherent subjectivity that Silver, a Chelsea season ticket holder who has attended matches for 43 years, believes is the reason why full automation would not work in the Premier League.

“Different referees interpret it in different ways”

While some laws are black and white, such as the offside rule, other refereeing decisions are more nuanced, such as when to hand out a yellow card or not.

Jack Butler, a Football Association (FA) certified referee, feels that handling this is an essential part of being a referee. “I like to keep the cards in my pocket, if possible,” Butler says. “However, some games can kick off. Cynical fouls or repeated warnings to a certain player or team require me to show a yellow in order to maintain the standards I look to set in the game.”

These on-the-fly refereeing decisions are the ones that Butler thinks automation would have trouble with. “In my opinion, [an] automated system looks at the situation as it is and doesn’t factor in the game as it’s being played,” he says. “For example, there could be a late foul, which is the player’s first of the game. I usually warn the player, whereas an automated system would probably award a yellow straight away.”

This issue crops up regularly when discussing VAR with representatives from supporters’ trusts of Premier League clubs. They believe that keeping the game flowing is an integral part of the sport, meaning automation will need to make decisions with a degree of “common sense” if it is ever to play a bigger role in officiating. A robot can measure millimetres, but it cannot measure context.

Yet for many fans, inconsistencies in officiating have created a creeping sense that their club is disproportionately impacted by unjust decisions. Some supporters, such as Silver, believe referees carry an unconscious bias when it comes to officiating against their club.

This is one aspect fans believe full automation would improve. But as Silver explains, it would need to be more efficient than its current implementation. “It needs to be quick,” he says. “It’s an entertainment sport, after all.”

It is this joy that Silver believes is disappearing from his matchday experience, with VAR one of the chief culprits. “[It is] a really fantastic day with your mates, ruined by 90 minutes of football,” he says. The erosion of entertainment was the focal point of responses from supporters’ trusts. Repeated stoppages of over five minutes often kill the excitement of games, especially when communication with fans is lacking.

The frustration runs deep enough that Fulham Supporters’ Trust treasurer Jerry Cope believes members would rather accept a wrong call than lose the natural flow of the game. “Supporters will tolerate wrong decisions for spontaneity,” he says.

The debate around refereeing and VAR will ultimately outlast any football season. But on one thing, fans and officials agree: automation is not the answer. Whatever works in American sport, the Premier League is a different ball game entirely.

Featured Image: Referee brandishing a yellow card to a player. Credit: Gorodenkoff (Adobe Stock)